May 5, 2016

Brace yourselves, America: Donald Trump won. After he dominated the Indiana primary, both Ted Cruz and John Kasich suspended their campaigns, officially making Trump the presumptive GOP nominee for president.

Though Hillary Clinton hasn’t officially wrapped up the Democratic nomination, the Trump-Clinton race is on. Can our democracy survive it? New York Magazine contributing editor and former New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan worries it might not. He returns from his journalism sabbatical to discuss his sobering new essay about the frailty of our Republic, and the dangers of Trump complacency.

But what of the biggest loser? Cruz’s choice to concede has dashed conservative hopes that Republicans would deny Trump the nomination in a contested convention. Our second guest, Texas Monthly senior editor Erica Grieder, examines whether or not Cruz will endorse Trump, and what his political future has in store.

Further reading:

America is a breeding ground for tyranny, writes Andrew Sullivan for New York Magazine

Trump will take down the GOP, but not America’s democratic system, argues Brian Beutler in the New Republic

Erica Grieder wraps her mind around Cruz’s fall and the presumptive Trump nomination, in Texas Monthly

What the first 100 days of a Trump presidency would look like, by Patrick Healy for the New York Times